Northwoods

So the riding in Duluth has been really good while I've been here. With the dry weather all the standing water has begun to evaporate, leaving a nice tacky trail to ride. I have a geat photo from some the stuff I've been riding on the Treo, but for some reason Blogger can't upload it, but it looks a lot like this shot from the race I tried on Sunday. 

With vacation days dwindling away before I head to Wisco for the annual drinking of the "Koolaid" as some have come to call it, I'm trying to get out and explore more of the trails that have been built since I moved. It's been fun running into old friends and getting out visiting others and seeing Duluth. I have yet to really get out to take some photos of what Duluth has to offer in the summer for sunsets, I plan on getting out tonight to try and do that.  I guess the biggest surprise has been the lack of mosquitos with all the rain Duluth has recieved this year, I was figuring that I would be attacked immediately, like I remember, if I stopped in the woods around here, but so far it's been bearable. Hopefully I didn't screw that up now that I said something about it. 

The Town That I'm From Treated Me Like A Touarist

I haven't really raced too much this year, obviously due to work, and even though I have been able to do the SLO Tuesday Worlds ride, it somehow still doesn't compare to an Expert mtn bike race. So this morning I woke up, packed up the Eg and made my way to Spirit Mountain for the MNSCS race there. 

The morning started out great, cool and a bit of a breeze, so I thought I would be ok. But alas, that was not the case. I got a good warm up with the hilarious Ross Fraboni and even stretched a bit before. Then we lined up for the start and we were off. Right away people were having problems starting at the foot of the climb, missed pedals and such. So I get around a few people and then a guy totally stops right in front of me and I end up doing a track stand waiting for him to get out of the way. He finally gets moving again and then I get around him Ross gets around me and then we crested the hill to get to the single track, and the usual traffic jam happens. We're all waiting to funnel through to actually start racing at that point. 

I was doing ok really, way off the back because of all the start problems, but still having fun. I get going and start passing people when I can, but trying to reserve energy to finish, as the race was two eight mile laps with a lot of climbing. But also trying to stay hydrated because it was so humid out and I was losing a lot of water through sweat. Now I live in California, yes I lived in Duluth, but California doesn't get that humid. So needlessly to say I had to pull the plug after the first lap. I was a bit disappointed, but I still had fun and I was able to ride real singletrack again. Thanks to Bill Schwalbe for doing such a great job as the race director, it's not an easy thing to do. 

The vacation's going good, looking forward to getting out and shooting some pictures and more riding on some new trails that have been built. 

East Bound

Left SLO 7 am Monday and made it to Fruita, CO in about 11 hrs. I was able to catch up to my good friend Q, who deos the Felt demo program, so we got a room, and planned hitting up the trails the next morning before making the drive to Boulder. Well, Q got a call and had to hit the road to make it to Boulder earlier than me, so I rode alone. It was a nice morning, not too hot, but warm. I was able to hit Mary's Loop and connect Steve's Loop which made for a nice 2 hrs before I had to get on the road myself. A short drive and I was in Boulder, I have to say that I love the drive from Fruita to Boulder. The road goes through the mountains which are just stunning. They are so big and remind you that the world is a big place and that your world is soooo small, and that we can get wrapped up in real insignificant things. So I like that part. 

I got into Boulder and rolled to my friend Tony's place ready to maybe go for a spin with him, but he picked up a kindney stone and was in horrible pain, even though he was on Vicadin. Sctracted the ride and a few friends, Catherine and Melanie, came over and made awesome burritos and cookies, yeah, they don't go together, but I don't pass up cookies. 

I stayed in Boulder on Wednesday and rode with Tony's twin brother Tom and Q, it was a great mtn bike ride in elevation and rain. It poured on us! It was great! I haven't ridden in a full on storn like that in a long time and forgot how fun it could be. A good 3 hrs at altitude. Then we hit the Pearl St mall area for some grub, I like Boulder too, in fact I think that's where I'm heading after my stint with Trek is done, I like it that much.

Then it was another day driving, this time to Omaha to see my step mom, Dee, and my aunt and uncle, whin I haven't see in 10yrs or something like that. I was a lot of fun catching up. Of course I heard plenty of "geez, you're not 12 anymore" and "you've grown sooo much". Yup that's the point of life, I think. So it was a quick stay in Omaha, before I was on the road again, this time to Duluth, MN, home for me.

The trip to MN is a great one. Being born in Omaha, I remember some of the drives through Iowa from the very ocassional visits to my dad, and driving to Moab, UT for riding. The time seems to go by so fast because of that. I hit the MN stateline in no time and was extremely overwhelmed. I haven't seen my family in 6 months and was missing them terribly. No real big things happened on the drive out, which is always a good thing, but it did rain hard on the way up to Duluth at one point. I had to slow down to 20mph because the rain was so heavy I couldn't see the car in front of me. 

I pulled in the driveway and saw my dog Gus, gave him a big hug and then searched out my parents. After talking with them for a bit, it was time to get on the mtn bike and spin the legs out. Duluth got rain earlier in the day, and it gets really muddy after a rain, so I was ust covered with mud! Again it was great to ride in that, that's ho I started riding mtn bikes. Long day driving and then riding it was time to chill out. Dinner and more catching up with mom and dad. I love vacations.

Hmmm

So I was told that I was a "hot" 36 today, what an interesting life I lead. It was a 26 yr. that said it too.

More Miles

Today was another mild day in the saddle. Did another 50+ today putting me at 130 for the weekend, not bad. I was afraid I was going to be flat today because of the effort I put in yesterday, but I felt great the whole ride. It's been nice actually having time to myself this weekend, I get to do things that I normally wouldn't, like relax. So my confidence is getting up there about the race on the 27th, looking forard to at least making a showing there. 

Whew!

Two posts! I forgot to mention that I have the weekend off, and with that I was able to get out on a great ride today, 4.5 hrs which translate into around 80 miles. This is the first time since February that I have been able to get out with a group to do this amount of miles, plus I still don't know all the routes here either. I do have to say that I do love the new Madone, it's super comfortable and ust goes. 

I'm Back

Ok so I had some heavy things go down a bit ago and had to delete the old blog. Long story, but the short version is that I'm no longer in a relationship, yup again. So for now I have this going, don't know how much I'll be writing, so enjoy when I do. 

Well with July here it's almost time for me to head home to Duluth for a bit before hitting up Madison for the annual Trek dealer show. I'm pretty excited as things have kind of gone stale out here on the west coast. It will be a great recharge of the batteries to get out of here for a bit, so when I come back it's like a fresh start. As you can see from the picture I have finally built up a 29er. The Paragon frame with Xlite wheels and XTR components and Reba fork, total weight is 23.5 lbs. It rides great. Still not good enough for me to get off the Top Fuel full time, but it'll be fun to ride once in a while. 

So in other things I have been getting things ready to head back to school also to finish up my degree and finally graduate. I'm pretty excited about this. I have been wanting to do this for a while and now have the motivation to get it done. Should take me a bout a year or so, I have about 30 credits left, but with the full time job it will take some major dedication and time management. I'm up for the task though, I don't see doing the demo things until I retire, I mean sooner or later one has to put roots down. 

So I think I told you that when I go back to Duluth that I get to race a mtn bike race while I'm there, I have been training and using the Tuesday rides to guage mself and it wasn't pretty for the first couple weeks, but now the form and confidence is coming back. So I'm excited to get back and see what happens. Hope eveyone had a safe 4th, I'm off for a ride.